On Jan 21, 2007, at 12:48 AM, Peter Szinek wrote:

> Nick,
>
>> number = gets
>
> after this line, try to
>
> p number
>
> to see what does it contain. It contains
>
> "4\n"
>
> So,  there is an ugly "\n" (carriage return) at the end. Let's  
> remove that!
>
> number = gets.chop
> p number

When you want to remove a line ending, prefer chomp() to chop().   
chomp() will only target the line ending, which will cause you less  
trouble when using it on a line that doesn't actually have one:

 >> "James".chomp
=> "James"
 >> "James".chop
=> "Jame"

Finally, neither is needed in this case:

 >> "42\n".chomp.to_i == "42\n".to_i
=> true

James Edward Gray II